Underworld Cycle series
Underworld Cycle series by Cameron Haley. Genres and Sub-Genres Urban Fantasy Series Description or Overview I'm Domino Riley, an enforcer for Shanar Rashan. Like most mob bosses in L.A., he's a powerful sorcerer, battling for control of the city, gathering up the magic of violent and powerful emotions and storing it for his own use. Back in the day, Rashan saved me from the streets and made me his lieutenant. You could say I'm his go-to girl. When a fellow gangster is ritually executed, I have to find out which of Rashan's enemies was behind it—and why. The cryptic messages I'm getting from the Beyond tell me it wasn't a simple hit. With the bodies piling up, I need to win an occult gang war, take out the supernatural traitor within our outfit and, oh yeah, deal with the mixed messages I'm getting from the boss's son. ~ Lead's Species *Mage Main Supe *Sorcerers What Sets it Apart *Magic Mobs, Sorcerers Narrative Type and Narrators *First peson narrative told by Domino Riley Books in Series Underworld Cycle series: # Mob Rules (2010) # Skeleton Crew (2011) # Dead Drop (2012) Shorts, Novellas, Anthologies and Guides * 0.5. "Retribution" (2012) — Harvest Moon anthology (Domino's back story) World Building Setting Los Angeles Places: * Supernatural Elements ✥ Sorcerer, juice (magic), pinkie (pixie), Faeries, Oberon, jinn, graffiti magic, zombie epidemic, Psychopomps, occult gang war, Glossary: * Juice: magic—the power source is hedonistic mortal behavior * Psychopomps (escort newly deceased souls to afterlife), a kind of reaper 'Groups & Organizations': * World In this world, the metaphor for magic is juice (the word is used multiple times on almost every page). The source of magic (juice) is hedonistic mortal behavior (e.g., sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll), so the mob runs gambling dens, brothels, strip joints, and drug operations to encourage this bad behavior. Taggers (graffiti artists) paint tags at these sinful locations, and those tags act as "straws" that the gangsters use to "sip" the magic, drawing strength for their various spells. Protagonist The heroine of the series, Dominica (Domino) Riley, was headed for a life of petty crime when Shanar Rashan, an ancient Sumerian sorcerer (and the top underworld mob boss of Los Angeles), pulled her off the streets and taught her everything he knew about spell casting. Now, Domino has developed her sorcerer talents to a powerful level and has taken the job as boss of Rashan's security outfit (think Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos + Elphaba from Wicked). Domino is a tough, street-smart UF heroine who can talk the talk and walk the walk of the LA supernatural underworld, competently dealing with all levels of street society, from homeless vagrants to gangbangers to rival enforcers. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Cameron Haley: THE UNDERWORLD CYCLE Book Cover Summeries ✤ BOOK ONE - Mob Rules (2010): As LA plunges into an occult gang war, mob sorceress Domino Riley must unravel a conspiracy that reaches beyond the magic-soaked mean streets into a world of myth and legend. Domino investigates the ritual execution of a mob associate, a graffiti magician named Jamal. The kid isn’t just dead, he’s been squeezed — the killer stole his magical power or “juice.” Domino summons Jamal’s shade, and the ghost points to Adan Rashan as his killer. This is tricky, because Adan is the favored son of Domino’s boss, Shanar Rashan, a six-thousand-year-old Sumerian wizard. It’s even trickier because only a mobbed-up sorcerer could have squeezed Jamal and Adan isn’t a sorcerer. As the corpses pile up, Domino must confront the killer and unmask an otherworldly kingpin with designs on her gang’s magic-rich turf. MOB RULES is an urban fantasy novel of murder and magic, betrayal and redemption set in the supernatural underworld of Los Angeles. ~ Cameron Haley ✤ BOOK TWO - Skeleton Crew (2011): Bodies are hitting the pavement in L.A. like they always do, but this time they're getting right back up, death be damned. My mobbed-up outfit of magicians may be the strongest in the city, but even they aren't immune to the living dead. And I've yet to develop a resistance to Adan Rashan. If I don't team up with the boss's son, we won't just be at each other's throats over control of the outfit. We'll be craving hearts and brains, as well. Because as long as this nasty spirit from the Between is stopping souls from finding peace, I'm facing the biggest supernatural crisis to ever hit the City of Angels. ~ Skeleton Crew #2 ~ Shelfari ✤ BOOK 2.5 - Retribution (2011): In the underworld, there are tricks to killing. Like executing rivals at crossroads so ghosts won't follow you home. But sometimes retribution is hard to avoid—and now a supernatural hit man has a contract on Domino Riley's life. Luckily she knows a thing or two about death…. An Underworld Cycle series novella. Previously published in the anthology Harvest Moon. ~ Retribution (Underworld Cycle #3) ~ Shelfari ✤ BOOK THREE - Dead Drop (2012): (can't find blurb) Category:Series